CAnt install RAID on any of my Mobos? Im a nob!

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Ok, after failing to get a RAID setup on my DS3, I decided to go and have a play on my MSI NF4 and that gave me the very same issues the DS3 did... I was able to access the drive with the floppy drivers etc, but when it started to actually copy the files over, it failed to find the drivers on the floppy???

I went and tried a number of Mobos, and they all failed at the same place...

The DS3 gave the error with the JRAID.SYS file

and the AMD Boards failed on their own NVATA RAID file.

I tried the following boards so far...

Abit NF7S
MSI Neo2 ( SATA )
MSI Neo4 ( Tried IDE and SATA and even both )
Foxconn NForce 6100
Gigabyte DS3

And they all fail at the same place

Obviously, I have used the correct respective drivers for each board.

I have tried a number of different HDs too!

2 x Seagate 80GB IDE
2 x Seagate 80GB SATA
4 x Hitachi 80GB
2 x WD200GB SATA

So, whats the deal?

Surely I must be doing somehting wrong for them to get the same distance and then fail to actually load their files from the floppy during the File-copy process on them all???

Im feeling a right noob now.
 
How are you going about doing this, normally you need to follow the steps below:

  • Create the RAID array in the mobo BIOS
  • Create the driver floppy - make sure it's the drivers for the controller on which the array is connected
  • Begin windows install
  • Press F6 to add new storage controller drivers
  • When asked press S to add new storage controller drivers
  • Select the appropriate drivers from the floppy
  • Partition and format the array as normal
  • Complete windows install as usual
 
Bingo... Thats how I am doing it.

It does EVERYTHING it should do...

I can access the drives ( Well, the one double-sized one now ) as I should, I can partition it to how I want, etc etc as I should be able to and it starts to copy files from the CD & Floppy, but it fails to load the floppy files, and falls over.

If I ignore this, then all the files are still copied over to the HD from the CD and it wont boot then.

This is what has happened whenever I have EVER tried to install to RAID.

Now, something that can really put things into the mix here, but on the DS3, if I have another normal ( NON-RAID ) Drive on the system, then it installs to RAID just fine... It obviously puts the boot onto the normal Drive cos if I remove it, the PC fails to boot... Put it back and it boots.

Annoying, but I just want to use 2 drives in RAID, and I dont want to have to add another drive just to get the buggers to boot.

Ideally, as I have given up on the DS3, I am having a play on the MSI NF4 now more than any other PC I have.

Any clues?
 
There's something not right here, you shouldn't be able to access the array until AFTER you've loaded the drivers from the floppy. Now if you can ignore the floppy step and still copy stuff to the array it suggests that the array isn't set up correctly. The fact that it then won't boot suggests the BIOS boot order is incorrect.

The fact that having a single boot drive in there works confirms the above.
 
Yeah..

Right, I use the F6 business right... I select the driver from the floppy... I have tried a number of various drivers, some I know are not right, some I know are right, but its getting to that point. Im trying anything just to see if I can get anywhere, but alas.

Ok, Assuming I do indeed have the right drivers, I select the right controler etc, it then continues along adding its own various controler drivers from the CD, and then it gets to the stage where I can select the drive / partition to install Windows to right?

Ok, it gets here, so it has obviously loaded the drivers from the floppy, otherwise, if I select the wrong controler or I dont select anythgin at all, then of course it wont see any drives and therefore it wont install.

But, it can see the array as the one striped drive rather than 2 smaller normal drives, so it has accepted that the Drivers are there on the floppy.

BUT...

When it is happy with the partition that I want Windows on, it starts its copying process and simply fails to re-load the floppy drivers, and fails to install.

Like I said, if I ignore this section, it carries on installing all the other files quite happily and then after that section, it restarts, but because it was not able to reload the floppy drivers, it cannot boot.

The BIOS is setup right, the Array is setup right, everything must be right...

Its very unlikely for me to setup RAID on half a dozen PCs for them all to fail at the exact same point in the installation procedure without there being some reason ( Obvious point there fatty ) but why?

Like I said, different controlers require difference drivers, and they all get to the very same point in the install and they all load up the floppy drivers enough to let me partition the drive, but they all fail to then re-load the drivers at the very same place?

I had thought that perhaps its my Installation CDs?

My XP Pro CD is SP1 and my SP2 CDs I have intergrated myself, and so I had thought it could be somethign I did in there, but my XP Home CDs are SP2, as is my MediaCenter, and XP64 is SP1 I know, but th 64Bit drivers also fail here too, and 2K is SP4 so that should be fine, so the chances of there being an issue with all those CDs all at the same thing, when everythign else seems to be ok, is near-impossible.

Im honestly stuck, and quite frankly Im about to lose a few quids worth of PCs in a very short time.
 
When it is happy with the partition that I want Windows on, it starts its copying process and simply fails to re-load the floppy drivers, and fails to install.
Click to expand...

OK, I'm struggling to follow what you're actually doing but this bit is worth digging into a bit more. You can partition the disk? The install goes through the blue text mode install with the yellow progress bar? Then does it want to reboot? Do you remove the floppy & CD at this point?

Is the BIOS boot order definitely set to boot the RAID array ahead of any other HDDs?
 
Not quite...

I give it F6 and then a short time later, it asks for the Floppy right?

I select the controler and everythign carries on as it should, I then get to format the drive as it should, but, when it starts to copy the files, it looks again on the floppy and tries to reload the raid drivers and it fails to find them... Even though 2 minutes ago, it did.

If I chose to ignore this section so it does not load in the drivers again, it carries on,m and lets me go through the entire DOS section of the install, and then, when it re-starts, it fails to boot... Obviously because it was unable to re-load the Raid drivers earlier on.

Yes, the boot order is

CD
RAID

Currently, the RAID array is setup using a pair of Hitachi 80GBs ( Stripped )

I have no other HDs in while Im installing.

I have tried putting in and taking out the floppy at various stages of the install to no avail.

I spent a few days trying to install onto a RAID array on the DS3, but gave up... I am ok if I also have a normal SATA Drive, and this will have the bootsector on ( WTF? ) but I dont want that.

I am now on day 2 on the NF4

I have tried several different ways with several different BIOSes and several different Drivers, and I would not be lying if I said that I have tried and failed over 50 times... Closer to 75 I recon.
 
FatRakoon said:
I give it F6 and then a short time later, it asks for the Floppy right?
Click to expand...

You're pressing S when prompted and then it starts reading the floppy, yeah?

Sorry to be asking what sound like dumb questions but I'm trying to narrow down what could be wrong but I'm coming to the same conclusion as you - it should be working!
 
Yes, it should be working, but its not.

Its not a case of asking the dumb questions for more than one reason...

1 - Even the best people can miss out on the most obvious things.
2 - When you've gone through the intelligent answers, the only ones left are the dumb ones

LOL

Seriously mate... Trust me on this, but, I am setting everything up right and as it should be... Its just not accepting the drivers properly, or rather it does at first, then 10 seconds later, after its already been using them, it changes its mind.

Now, here is a side note, that not many people seem to mention, but many know...

When I used my NF7S ( Or was it the KD7Raid? ) anyway... One of those boards...

I had 2 different drivers..

1 - for when you are adding the array to an already installed setup
2 - for when you are installing to the array

Now, these are similar but different.

It seems that when you first tell it the drivers, it accepts them as the first one, but then on the seconds re-load, it expects the second type... Which it does not have cos its the first type? or the other way round?

Anyway, Im trying to think back from when I used to have RAID on that board what I had to do back then, and it was somehting like this thats ringing in my head, but alas, failing to become any clearer than mud right now.

Im hoping that maybe intergrating the RAID ( SETUP ) and the RAID ( ALREADY PLAYING ) Drivers into a CD might be the answer?
 
I have to say it does look like user error somewhere but I can't see what from your description. I've set up RAIDs on the 965P-S3 and -DS4 which are near enough the same boards and not had any problems. If the chicken you're stuck up is anywhere near me I'll come and peer over your shoulder to see what's going on.

Jonathan
 
Snapshot said:
I have to say it does look like user error somewhere but I can't see what from your description. I've set up RAIDs on the 965P-S3 and -DS4 which are near enough the same boards and not had any problems. If the chicken you're stuck up is anywhere near me I'll come and peer over your shoulder to see what's going on.

Jonathan
Click to expand...

LOL

This particular chicken is in North Wales sorry mate...

Yes, it could well be user error. I know Im doing everything 100% right, but then, for every RAID setup I try, it fails at the very same place.

On the DS3 though... I can do it, providing I also have a standard HD connected as well as the array, but then this seems to install the bootsector to the normal Drive not the RAID... OR at least I have done this... ONCE!

I tell you what...

If you could do this for me...

Give me links to the EXACT files I need, and give me a complete and total NOOB run-through.

Since you say you have a DS3 and have done it... Give me the info for the DS3 too.
( Ok, I just read your post ... But you got VERY close to the DS3 then )

On the DS3, I get all the way until it starts to copy files onto the Partition and then it fails to then load in JRAID.SYS off the floppy.
 
FatRakoon:

Try the following boot order:

1st drive - DVD rewriter, 2nd drive - Floppy, 3rd drive - HDD.

Also, are you sure that the Floppy is working properly, ie,. just after pressing F6, about 30secs or so, do you hear the setup actually accessing the Floppy for the drivers?

The Floppy disk should NOT be removed from the Floppy drive, until the whole Windows XP install has completed, and the Desktop appears.

Have a look Here - although this is for the ICH5R, the same applies generally for the ICH7R/ICH8R. :)
 
Dutch777 said:
A good walk through guide here:

BLAH BLAH

Maybe swap out FD / cables in case they are causing problems
Click to expand...

Ok, cheers for the Walkthough... Will have a peek in a few...

FD Cables?

I suppose, but then its done this for some time and its still doing this on Many different PCs... The Media for sure, I have thought of this too, as FDs are getting poor these days, but again, its unlikely for all disks in all drives in all PCs to all give the same error at the same place surely?

Still, not one to be too ignorant, I will re-try with new disks and a new drive for sure!

jbloggs said:
FatRakoon:

Try the following boot order:

1st drive - DVD rewriter, 2nd drive - Floppy, 3rd drive - HDD.

Also, are you sure that the Floppy is working properly, ie,. just after pressing F6, about 30secs or so, do you hear the setup actually accessing the Floppy for the drivers?

The Floppy disk should NOT be removed from the Floppy drive, until the whole Windows XP install has completed, and the Desktop appears.

Have a look Here - although this is for the ICH5R, the same applies generally for the ICH7R/ICH8R. :)
Click to expand...

Again, yes, Drive and disks are checkign out fine... The drive itself is a brand new one in both the Neo4 and the DS3, as are the floppies.

I have just a short while ago, intergrated the RAID drivers off the Floppy into a CD... I have done this for a few CDs actually and they are burned and ready to have a go... Hopefully it willgo in and not need the floppy at all, or at least thats the plan???

REMOVE THE FLOPPY
No, I know not to do that, but its more a trial and error kind of thing... I have gone ( Many times ) through the normal ways, but its failing and failing all the time, so my experiments on removing the floppy or inserting it at various stages is only in some attempt at gettign it to actually do anythign else????

Ok, I will have a look at the link too!

All RAID Setups should go in a similar way, no matter what controler or what disks, Mirror or Stripe... The idea is essentially the same.

---

Ok cheers guys.

Even though I know the harwdare is fine and I know Im doing things right, I will re-try everythign I can, including replacing the Floppy, Drive and cable, and I will have a look at both the links and see how I go yeah?

Hopefully I will see that I missed somethign so pathetic and obvious, that I iwll kick myself, but I have my doubts.

Many thanks.

See you on the other side....
 
OKAY!!!!

Its done.

Im now running on a pair of Hitachi 80GB and HDTach is giving me 110MB/s which is nigh on double that of my last HD... Erm, which was a Single Hitachi.

Something went wrong with the installation however, cos I cannot do any updates at all.

Click on the icon in the menu it just ignores me, with no error or anything, it just does nothing.

Switched on Automatic updates and nothing is happening and its been waiting for a fair while now.

I have grabbed the URL from another PC to manually try to run through the updates, but those are seemingly tryign to go, they are downloading, but they are failing to install...

So, the idea works just fine... I did not need a floppy, and I used nlite to intergrate the drivers that should have gone onto the floppy into the CD and its fine this way.

What I will do for now, is re-do another CD and re-try it, although I dont know why its done that update thingy ?
 
Ok great.

While Test No1 was a partial success... Tests No2 & 3 are 100% successful

I have taken the Floppy Drivers and simply intergrated them into the CD.

Test No2 was a re-do of the Original CD 1 with my original CD being used instead of one of my recent ISO Builds....

Test No3, I decided just for a kick, to intergrate ALL drivers for all my hardware, and all RAID drivers etc for the Mobos.

The test CD ( No.3 ) works just fine on the following Mobos:-

Abit NF7S
Abit KD7R
MSI Neo2 Platinum
MSI Neo4F
DFI LP250UT
Gigabyte DS3

And just for kicks, also on these cards

SIL3112 ( The same as the NF7S actually )
SIL0680 ( IDE This one, but still RAID )


I did mess up slighty however, but its nothing Im concerned about and that is, that I renamed the RAID on the DS3, and in the BIOS, it does show my ARRAY Name as I have named it, however, this seems to have done something slighty iffy to it, because it will no longer boot from HD ( The Array ) anymore, even though its set to do that... Instead it goes through all other ways and does the Array last.

Perhaps its looking for GRAID still?

Another thing I need to keep my eyes out with, is that one of the Hitachi Drives is clunking like hell... Also the system does seem to hang sometimes during disk access... Its manuf date is only Aug2006 and its the one I got from OCUK, while all my other Hitachis are silent, so its soon to be replaced.

Other than that, Im now running RAID just fine, and I have had to intergrate the drivers into my CD as I have failed so many times in trying it from Floppy.
 
I'd still like to know what's really going on because I've never heard of anyone needing to integrate the drivers into the CD before. I've been following the F6 procedure (or equivalent) since NT 3.5 and it simply works.
 
You and me both mate.

As I keep saying... I have had the same error on different systems, but at the same place during the install...

After "F6" it finds the conroler, and lets me use the HD to Partition it etc, then when it goes to copy the files onto the Disk, it does the CD ones just fine, but it does not do the Floppy ones? - Yet, its just got them 5 seconds ago??

Its not like they are the wrong ones either, cos with NLITE I have ONLY selected the 363 RAID drivers on one of the CDs and nothing else... And they are the very ones that fail to read from the floppy, and yes, its off the floppy that I intergrated the drivers, so it cannot possibly be the floppy of the drive, otherwise the intergration would also fail, but it works spot-on.

Anyway, I have had a play, and while Im getting 120MB/s now, I have installed a number of games and apps and apart from defragging a lot quicker, real world performance isnt all that much better, so Im going back to normal Disks... Also Im a little paranoid of one of the drives being clunky and noisy while the other is silent, so I feel its going to fail any minute...
 
Hmmm.. Weird one here.

Taken the DS3 back to Normal SATA and now the disk access is really poor? I mena, HDTach gave me 40Mb/s instead of the previous 60-65

I used the Drives on the MSI Neo4 and it first failed to format the disk ( Quick ) but then I went for the FULL FORMAT and it went on... This, I feel could actually be down to the fact that the brand new one, is on its way out... Anyway, thats giving me 90MB/s so that to oisnt going too hot either.

Quite a tease really cos the 2x200GB Seagates are almost double the speed, but hey... who cares?

Been talkign to the missus today and she said that she will buy me a pair of Raptors for xmas if I want... She already got me RAM too, so its going to be a good one this year!!! - Wohoo!
 
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